Did Jesus speak in Greek?

The Greek text in John 19:30 (it is finished) reads τετελεσται (teh-TELL-eh-sty). To some, this word is kind of a tongue twister – I’ve heard it come out, (teh-TEST-eh-lie) recently, and it reminded me that it’s kind of showboaty to use Greek from the pulpit in the first place (when you’re preaching to English speakers anyway). Sure, St. John MacArthur of Sun Valley got away with it regularly, but generally, it can come off smarmy and well, kinda embarrassing if you don’t pronounce the word right.

Yes, Jesus gave up his life for sinners on the cross, and yes, the word, ‘it is finished’ was apparently used to denote ‘paid in full’; but do we really have to quote it and parse it in Greek before a congregation (perfect passive indicative 3rd person singular) for them to understand that Jesus won for us a salvation which is all His work on sinners’ behalf, that it is a once, for all His people, complete, with nothing more needed, paid-in-full kind of salvation? Yes, ‘tetelestai’ is the word the scripture records as that which Jesus uttered from the cross. Some speculate it was probably the word ‘Meshalam’ in Aramaic – but remember the placard on which Pilate wrote Jesus’ supposed ‘crime’ showed three languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), so did he really speak in Greek as He died? It’s really a silly question – I mean, Jesus COULD have spoken in Upper Mississippian Cherokee with a Bavarian accent if it served His purpose. What He did speak in, was whatever He needed to speak in and whatever He chose to speak in so that whoever was listening could understand what He was saying. Whether it was from the pinnacle of the Temple, from the mount in His famous sermon, in the Temple courts, or from the cross, He said what was necessary, and…

He paid it in full. IN FULL.